1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a device for or in a garbage truck, particularly a vehicle for receiving and transporting so-called biological or organic garbage. The garbage truck includes tilting arrangements at the end of the vehicle for tilting a can containing garbage upwardly for emptying the can and for tilting the can backwardly into its initial position after the can has been emptied. The garbage dropped into the hold of the vehicle and the emptied can are sprayed with a disinfecting agent for treating the garbage and cleaning the can.
2. Description of the Related Art
Garbage generated in households and also in businesses have for some time now been separated into different types of garbage to be collected and further processed, such as, paper, plastic materials, etc.; in the same manner, a separate collection of perishable organic materials, particularly food leftovers is carried out in separate containers. This type of waste is decomposed by bacteria and is to be used later for composting in gardens, etc. Accordingly, this type of garbage has been called organic garbage. This organic garbage has the significant disadvantage that in the containers for collecting the garbage, also called organic garbage cans, large quantities of mold fungus which are detrimental to health are formed. The aspergillus spores formed in the cans may be life threatening for allergic persons. Particularly affected are garbage disposal personnel who may breathe these poisonous spores when emptying the organic garbage cans. Moreover, children and persons having weakened immune systems are particularly endangered.
In order to at least partially eliminate the above described disadvantages of garbage, particularly the so-called organic garbage, it is known in the art to provide in the garbage truck above the hold for the garbage or organic garbage a spraying device which sprays the garbage introduced into the hold with a liquid which disinfects the garbage, as disclosed, for example, in DE-PS 74 686, DE-PS 81 195, DE-PS 112 628 and DE-GM 94 03 313.7. As long as organic garbage is involved it can be stated that spray agents can be used that do not impair the quality of the organic garbage. When the disinfection described above is carried out, any annoying odor of the garbage or organic garbage which is partially being decomposed is eliminated or at least reduced.
However, in these known spraying devices, only the garbage already dropped into the hold of the garbage truck is treated; not treated are the garbage residues that still adhere to the inner walls and the bottom of the can after the can has been emptied. When the users of the cans do not ensure that the cans are cleaned or the cans are sprayed with a disinfecting agent, for example, the aspergillus spores remain adhering to the can, reproduce and continue to pose a potential danger for any person who opens the can for introducing new organic garbage. The same is true for the garbage disposal personnel who manipulate the cans and bring the cans to the garbage truck for emptying the cans because when the cans are tilted upwardly into the disposal position, the covers of the cans open automatically and any aspergillus spores that are present are distributed in the environment. Experience has shown that, for reasons of laziness or forgetfulness, the emptied organic cans are not cleaned or disinfected as described above. While it is known in the art to provide spraying devices for disinfecting the empty garbage cans, as disclosed, for example, in DE-PS 938 299 and DE-PS 2 056 039, these arrangements are also incomplete because the garbage removed from the garbage cans is not sprayed and disinfected by these arrangements.
Finally, DE-AS 10 24 875 discloses a procedure in which a single spray nozzle adjustable in only one spraying direction initially sprays a disinfecting agent onto the garbage dropping out of the can and subsequently sprays the disinfecting agent into the interior of the can and at the cover of the can in order to disinfect the can. This procedure has several disadvantages. The disinfectant is only sprayed against those portions of the garbage that are at the bottom in the hold after the garbage drops into the hold. This means that the upper layer of the garbage is not sprayed. This results in the production of the above described disadvantageous odor and may also cause the formation of mold fungi. In addition, with a single adjustment of the spraying device, it is not possible to achieve in an optimum manner spraying of the garbage which drops down and also of the interior of the can. This is particularly true when cans having different inner cross-sections and lengths are to be emptied and sprayed in the same garbage truck.